By Godfred A. Polkuu, GNA
Sherigu (U/E) Sept. 15, GNA – The Bolgatanga District branch of the Church of Pentecost in the Upper East Region has launched the “Environmental Care Campaign” programme at Sherigu, a community in the Bolgatanga Municipality, as part of its quest to ensure a clean environment.
The campaign is one of the Church-State partnerships captured in the church’s vision for the next five years dubbed: “Vision 2023” which is on the theme: “Possessing the Nations: Equipping the Church to transform every sphere of society with values and principles of the kingdom of God.”
Speaking at a community durbar to launch the campaign, Reverend Alex Kwasi Ansong, the Bolgatanga District Pastor of the Church, said the campaign was expected to run throughout all the 16 Assemblies in the Municipality.
He said the church recognised the passion and concern the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has attached to the dealing with the sanitation issue in Ghana and that the focus of the church had been to help realise that goal.
“It is out of this that we have developed various strategies to run a campaign on the Environmental Care under the slogan: Environmental Care, My Responsibility,” he said.
Quoting from Deuteronomy 23:12-14, Reverend Ansong said “If we want God to visit us, then, we need to keep our surroundings very clean,” and indicated that the campaign was planned to tackle education, clean-up exercises, and Community-based initiative among other activities.
The District Pastor explained that the church would focus on attitudinal change and highlight some unhealthy practices such as open defecation, improper disposal of waste, poor handling of domestic animals and unfriendly environmental-means of livelihood that contribute to environmental degradation.
He said the church would continue to educate its members and the general public on existing environmental by-laws, and stressed that “The clean-up exercise approach instil in members the discipline to be physically responsible and be involved in the care and cleaning of the environment.
Reverend Ansong said the church would embark on periodic clean up exercises in public spaces and encourage the use of dustbins at all church buildings, homes and workplaces of members.
He said the church would further collaborate with the Forestry Commission to ensure tree planting exercises at church sites, the mission houses as well as other specific areas within the Region as part of the church’s community-based initiatives.
Mr Kojo Njabore, the Upper East Regional Deputy Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, thanked the leadership of the church for the initiative and said “We at Zoomlion believe that sanitation is a shared responsibility.”
He urged religious leaders to use their various platforms to teach their congregations the need to change their attitudes towards ensuring a clean environment, and called on members of the Sherigu community to join the church to clean the area.
Naba Thomas Apasinaba II, the Chief of Sherigu, in a message delivered on his behalf, expressed gratitude to the church for the initiative and entreated members of his community to join the church to ensure that Sherigu was clean devoid of filth.
The church as part of the launch, cleaned various parts of the community, presented a refrigerator to the Sherigu Health Centre and shared both new and slightly used clothing to members of the community.
GNA
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